


Q is for Queens of a Pair

by sapphirebluerubyredroses



Series: ABC Challenge [10]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Arya and Dany are best friends, Arya and Gendry are also lovestruck idiots, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-25
Updated: 2015-02-25
Packaged: 2018-03-15 05:17:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3434978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphirebluerubyredroses/pseuds/sapphirebluerubyredroses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arya and Daenerys won the Seven Kingdoms together. It's a wonder what Arya comes across when walking through her new kingdom.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Q is for Queens of a Pair

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Game of Thrones in any sort of way!
> 
> I also have an account on Fanfiction under sapphire blue-ruby red roses and on Tumblr under shutupandshipit where this has been posted

"If you were to marry, what kind of man would you want to marry?" Daenarys asked quietly, stroking the head of her dragon, staring over the ruins of the King's Landing. A sad frown tugged at the corners of her lips. Only if she could stop hearing the sobbing, the screaming, the cheering rising from the city, if only for a moment, she would be able to conduct herself as the princess, no, the queen she was.

Her eyes skipped over to Arya, dressed in the light, flexible leathers and cloth of the Braavosi emblazoned with her family crest, her thin sword at her side. She was as small as the day Dany had met her, but no more as large as her. She was her knight, and her partner in ruling.

Arya was a queen of the Seven Kingdoms, ruling beside Daenarys. Neither bore kings at their sides, and neither wished to.

Rolling her eyes, Arya scoffed, "I'm not getting married, Dany, I've already told you that. I don't need a man to try and shadow over me as ' _my king_ '. Why are you thinking about this right now anyway? We just won a war and the crown and the kingdom."

Dany laughed at her friend's usual response. "Distraction. Play along, you need a distraction. Anyway, I said 'if'. Play along," she entreated, smiling, "What kind of man would you want at your side, not as rulers, but as a partner, someone to share your burdens equally and help you run a household? What kind of man –or maybe woman?-" Dany raised a suggestive eyebrow, "is the great and lonesome Arya Stark attracted to?"

Sighing, Arya stepped to the terrace, staring up at the sparkling night sky. Even though the city blazed with every kind of light imaginable, the stars still shone brightly. If it had been any person other than Dany, Arya would have already told them to go shove it and left the room, but this was Daenarys, her best friend, so instead, she searched her mind for an answer.

Sweaty muscled skin flashed in her mind's eye. A wide smile, a rolling wrestling match, a betrayal, a last look as he was carted away.

"Strong," Arya murmured, biting down on her roaming, traitorous thoughts, "Kind. Someone good with their hands. Someone protective and loyal. A good fighter."

A sad smile pulled up the corners of Dany's lips. It wasn't hard to imagine who she was basing her description off of. There were a scarce few things that she did not know about her best friend. "I'm sorry," was all she said as the tears slipped passed Arya's carefully constructed barriers.

…..

"Hey!" Arya snapped, picking up her leisurely pace and gripping the handle of her sword as she spotted the brawl brewing out front of a little blacksmith's shop in Flea Bottom. She stepped between the two men, glaring back at the vicious snarl contorting one man's face. "We just ended a war! There has been enough blood shed and fighting had for the next century! Go back to wherever you came from!" she snapped.

With a grind of his teeth, the man bowed messily, muttering bitterly, "As you wish, your majesty." He turned, stumbling away down the alley to the brothel on the corner.

Watching until he disappeared into the building, Arya about faced to look at the other man. Her mouth went dry as she glimpsed him, her eyes growing wide. Anger flashed through her like a white hot spike, and before he could open his mouth, she slapped him with all her strength. Turning on a heel, she marched away from him, eyes set on the castle in the distance.

"Arya, wait, please!" the man called, following after her, stumbling in her hurried wake, "Arya!"

"Leave me alone, Gendry!" she hissed scathingly, refusing to look back to meet his eyes for fear that she would stop and her anger would fizzle into nothing. She feared if she met his achingly familiar eyes, she would simply burst into tears and dissolve into a puddle of Stark soup.

Catching up to her, Gendry caught hold of her arm. "Arya, wait. Let me explain."

Ripping her arm from his grasp, she spun back towards him, chest heaving. "Then explain!" she cried, eyes flashing with threat as Nymeria's often did when she was just about ready to attack.

Closing his eyes and drawing in a steadying breath, he began, "When the Red Priestess took me, I realized I'd made a mistake, but it took being stuck in a row boat in the middle of the ocean for weeks to realize just how big of a mistake I'd made. If I hadn't decided to stay with the Brotherhood, if I hadn't let her take me, we wouldn't have gotten separated. What would I do in King's Landing anyway? Sure, I was Robert Baratheon's bastard, but that meant nothing to Cersei or Joffery, and I was not born and taught to be a king. I'm a blacksmith, and that is what I will always be.

"I went looking for you, hoping, wishing, that you didn't hate me as much as I hated myself. When I heard you'd gone to Braavos, I was sure you were lost to me forever. I considered throwing myself into the ocean, but something stopped me. So, I made weapons… and I learned to fight as a knight would."

For the first time since laying eyes upon him, Arya noticed the leathers strapped across his broad chest, the delicately crafted chainmail draped beneath them, the broad sword strapped to his side with a bull's crest carved into the hilt alongside the Baratheon stag beneath a black cloak. She said nothing, waiting for him to continue.

"I was on my way to the castle when I got into that brawl with that bloke."

Arya frowned, leaning back on one leg, palm flat against the hilt of her sword. "Why were you headed for the castle? What business do you have there? Dany –shit- I mean, the Queen has no use for weapons at this time."

Blinking, a smile crept over Gendry's lips. "I bear gifts for the new **queens** , m'lady, my Queen, and a request."

Arya's cheeks flared hot, ears burning beneath the locks of her long hair. "Do not call me that!" she snapped, glancing around surreptitiously to make sure no one had been listening. The alley they were in appeared deserted enough though.

"As m'lady commands," Gendry replied, laughter in his voice.

As if she were still that little girl he had met all those years ago, she grumbled, "Don't call me m'lady!" as she shoved him to the ground laughing. "Gods, I hate you." She stormed away, returning to her path to the castle.

Scrambling to his feet, Gendry hurried to catch up with her. Before he could speak, Arya muttered, "I'll take you to Dany, she's the real queen."

…..

A carefully restrained smile that threatened to break forth in full force at the slightest provocation was plastered to Dany's face. Arya often lovingly referred to it as her ' _shit-eating grin_ '. If Gendry hadn't been there, she would have told the young queen that it graced her face, but he was there, and so, Arya could only glare at her best friend.

"So, this is the one and only Gendry Waters," Dany said, ignoring the steadily heating glare she could feel focused on her. She just barely restrained her smile at the embarrassment she felt rolling off of the woman in waves.

"You know of me, your majesty?" Gendry asked wonderingly, glancing to Arya questioningly. She avoided his eye, standing at Dany's side between the dragons and Nymeria, choosing instead to send flaming daggers at the woman that simply bounced off of her skin as if it were dragon hide.

"Oh yes, I have heard… many a tail of you," Dany told him, laughter in her words. He wasn't entirely sure if she was laughing at him or a private joke he was not privy to. "Now, what can I do for you, Gendry Waters?"

"I come bearing gifts for the new queens of the Seven Kingdoms and a request, your majesty," he told her, bringing forward a satchel that Arya had not noticed at his back.

Daenarys nodded, spreading her hand forward. "Present your gifts and then we will hear your request."

Bowing his head, Gendry pulled the strap of the satchel over his head, and kneeled at their feet. "For the new queens, I present two crowns, one befitting the Mother of Dragons." He set a crown was black as dragon bone and seemed to be forged from fire, glittering with imbedded flames. "And one befitting the Lone Wolf of the North." Beside the first, he set a crown as white as snow and thin as the point of a direwolf's fang. "I was unsure of whether you possessed crowns of your own," he explained.

Her eyes glittering with wonder, Dany spoke as regally as she could with excitement running her words together. "No, we do not. These are wonderful. Thank you, Gendry."

Nodding, Gendry pulled forth from his satchel a small dragon of the same material as Dany's crown. "I know you have dragons of your own, live and healthy, but when they are away, may he keep you company."

The grin finally exploding across Dany's lips, she accepted the dragon. "It's beautiful. I believe he will be wonderful company." Holding out the figurine to her dragons, they each took turns investigating and dismissing it. Dany giggled happily.

Standing, Gendry left the satchel on the step, and from his belt, pulled another sword. It was much thinner than his broad sword, but not as thin as Needle. Eyes glued to Arya's surprised eyes, he knelt on one knee before her. "A new sword for the warrior queen engraved with the sigil of her house, the direwolf of the Starks."

Taking the new weapon as delicately as she could manage, she unsheathed it and tested its balance, finding it perfect. "Gendry, this is… perfect," she whispered, scarcely hearing the giggle Dany carefully disguised with a cough.

With a swift smile, Gendry stood and resumed his place, waiting patiently as his queens marveled their new gifts.

In unison, they both blushed a scarlet to rival the Red Priestess' hair. Daenarys set the sculpture beside her crown, folding her hands in her lap. Arya sheathed her new blade and placed it beside Needle in her belt.

"Your request?" Dany prompted once Arya had ceased her fidgeting.

"I wish to be made a knight of your Queen's Guard. I know you are hard pressed to find men you can trust, and I wish to serve beneath Queen Arya."

"Yes!" Arya and Dany cried together, "A hundred times yes!" The pair glanced at each other, grinning and laughing.

Gendry couldn't help but smile at the comfortable way they interacted.

Stepping down, Dany jumping up to follow after her, Arya led Gendry out of the hall. "We'll have you anointed now. I need another knight."

Dany fell into step on Arya's other side, grinning from ear to ear. "This," she predicted, "is going to be an interesting arrangement."

…..

"Harder!" Arya shouted, spinning, her sword shrieking as it slammed into Gendry's, "Don't hold back! It won't make either of us better fighters!"

Gritting his teeth, Gendry rushed her, plowing head first into a tree as Arya slid out of his path. "Son of a whore," he snarled, sliding to the ground and laying facedown in the grass. He groaned quietly, his body going limp.

Sheathing her sword, Arya dropped down beside him, pressing the side of her face to the ground to attempt a view of his face. "You're not dead are you? Come on, it's not that bad. Serio and even Jon, when we went to visit him, used to work me twenty times harder than this. This is only the warm-up."

"If this is the warm-up then I will be dead before we even get through the first half," Gendry grumbled into the soil. They stayed like that for a long moment before his arms shot out, and suddenly she was being smothered in a bone crushing embrace and overzealous kiss. "Explain to me why I love you."

Rolling her eyes, Arya propped her chin on his chest, staring at him. "You're the one who is supposed to tell me that," she pointed out. "Come on, let's keep practicing."

"Let me lie here for a little longer before you kill me," he said, holding her in place. Looking down his chest at her, considering, he began pressing kisses across her face from her forehead to her chin.

Screaming and laughing, she flailed, struggling to free herself. "No, stop it!" She pushed on his chest, leveraging herself enough to see Nymeria bounding towards them. "Oh no!" she cried just in time for them to be tackled.

Dany came into the garden, yelling over the snarling and screeching and laughter, "What are you guys doing out here? You better not be killing each other. I don't want to clean up any blood today!" Pausing, she quirked an eyebrow at the trio. "Did Nymeria catch you two having sex?"

"What? No! Get her off of us!" Arya shouted even though the smile on her face told a different story.

"I would if you had taught her to take commands from anyone other than a Stark," Dany told her, sitting on a stone bench to watch the commotion. "Once you're all done here, we've got a meeting to get to with the counsel. Didn't someone tell you about that Gendry?"

"Yes! I forgot," Gendry called truthfully, wrestling the direwolf to the ground only to be overtaken by her owner.

Laughing, Dany told them, "Well, once you're done here, head there. We'll be waiting you two. Don't take too long!" Standing, she strode back into the castle, leaving the trio to fight it out like civilized royals.

…..

"Dany," Arya said quietly, leaning back against the plush, feather pillows in her best friend's bed chamber. Nymeria lay across the end of the bed, and the dragons roosted on the balcony that had been specially constructed so they would always be close to her.

"Yes, oh love of mine," Dany said sweetly, grinning as she looked at the smaller woman at her side. She closed her book over a strap of leather, setting it aside to give Arya her full attention.

Gnawing on her lip, it was some time before Arya finally blurted out her secret. "I think I'm pregnant."

Dany's smile froze on her face. "Why would you think that?"

"I haven't bled for two moons," Arya whispered, mortification beginning to take hold. Was Dany angry with her? Disgusted with her? Her lack of reaction worried Arya more than when she was fighting in battle.

"Who would be the father? Hm, Arya dearest?" she asked.

"Gendry," Arya whispered, voice tiny. She played with the ring he'd made her that she kept on a thin silver chain beneath her shirt.

That startled Dany into action. "Gendry allowed you to talk him into possibly fathering a bastard? I thought he had better morals than that!" she cried, voice echoing around the small room.

Arya shushed her harshly. "No, of course not!"

"But you two aren't married, so how-" Dany's eyes narrowed as Arya's eyes darted away from her gaze. "Arya, what did you do?"

A sheepish blush spread across the younger woman's skin. "You remember that trip Gendry and I took to Winterfell to help rebuild it and name a new Warden of the North? The one that took a lot longer than it should have?"

Dany's eyes narrowed further. "Yes…"

"We didn't go expressly to rebuild Winterfell. Since the Gods' Wood had been burned to the ground and we needed to check on the Night's Watch, well, we took a little trip to the Wall. And we kind of took our vows in their God's Wood on Jon's push."

Daenarys was silent for a moment far too long for Arya's comfort, scarcely even breathing. When she finally spoke, Arya flinched away from her words. "You're telling me," she began in a whisper, voice steadily rising to a shout, "That you got married without your best friend there?! Arya Stark, I could strangle you!"

Arya cried out as Dany tackled her to the bed, wrestling until she had her pinned beneath her. "I'm sorry, but this was the only way! Gendry doesn't want to be king and there are no God's Wood in the South! Only two people knew about this Jon and the maester who married us, and now you. Please, don't be angry."

Dany laughed, only serving to startle and confuse Arya. "I'm not mad, you dimwit wolf! I'm delighted! I'll have a little niece or nephew to spoil, and you and Gendry to tease mercilessly without any others interceding!"

"You're a horrible woman!" Arya snapped, even as laughter spilled from her in large, flowing waves.

"But you love me!" Dany crowed, falling into the mattress beside her, "One day, your son and my daughter, or my son and your daughter will marry and rule these lands together. Or our daughters or our sons will rule as we do."

Grinning widely, wonderment at the fact that she would have ever been happy married and with child flowing through her veins, she told the woman, "First, you have to bear a child, I would think."

A sly grin turning up the corners of her mouth, Dany leaned close to Arya's ear, whispering, "I'm already with child."

Arya reeled back, staring at her, "Now who should be strangling who?!"

Dissolving into another fit of laughter, Dany wrapped her arms around her best friend.

…..

"Dany, don't!" Arya screamed, clutching at her bleeding arm, staring up at her best friend as she rose to finish the battled, end the war, win this new war that had overtaken their kingdom. "What about your girls? Do you want them to grow without a mother?"

Smiling sadly, Dany called to her, "I trust you and Gendry to care for them if I do not return. You will be a fine queen, as you have always been."

"Dany, no!" Arya cried again, reaching to follow her, but Gendry grabbed her wrist, pulling her back into him.

"We can't lose you both!" he shouted, "I can't lose you."

Dany smiled and nodded her thanks. Screaming, Arya could only watch her disappear into the smoke filled night, straining against Gendry's hold.

…..

"Auntie, is Mommy every going to wake up?" Daenarys' youngest daughter asked, crawling up beside Arya on Dany's bed where the woman breathed softly, deep in an endless sleep.

Arya sighed, stroking the girl's silver hair, looking to Gendry cradling their youngest son against his chest. "I don't know, but when she does, we'll have to be sure to greet her. We'll tell her everything that has happened, and all the adventures we went on, and what she missed because she was sleeping." Gendry smirked lightly at the comment, moving to lean back against the wall behind her. "We'll tell her about your dragon eggs hatching, and Nymeria giving birth to ten pups, and your sister's betrothal, and Gendry being coroneted as king, and especially about the birth of your new cousin. We'll tell her everything, even if it's years before she wakes."

From the other side of the bed, Dany's oldest daughter intertwined their fingers together. "Take your time sleeping and healing, Mother. We'll be here when you wake up."

**Author's Note:**

> I think I meant this to be longer, but I actually like where it went. At first, I only had that part of the first scene where Gendry was chasing after Arya to go off of. I like how this turned out.


End file.
